This blog has been set up by Our Savior's Lutheran Church, West Bend, WI, to host postings of email updates from David and Nancy Slinde who are volunteering in El Salvador on behalf of Our Savior's, The Greater Milwaukee Synod of the ELCA, and Rotary International (among others).

David and Nancy Slinde Speaking at their "Sending Service"

Thursday, February 19, 2009

We leave this morning (Janaury 27, 2009 posted later) for Fundahmer and our visits to our potential communities and projects. We do not know if we will have access to internet, so if you do not hear from us for a few days. so not worry, just continue to pray for our needs and God's riches for our journey. Please keep praying about David's journal - still not recovered.RECAP: Our visit to the AgriCenter on Saturday was an excellent training experience for the church and community leaders as they develop their vision for their communities.Sunday was spent accompaning Bishop Gomez at worship in the city of San Salvador and then to a rural community to celebrate 8 baptisms and 3 confirmations in a small church packed to SRO. Then to dinner with him and his family at a pupuseria on the mountain overlooking the bright lights of the wide spread city of San Salvador.Monday we went to La Granja for a final look at the project to see its progress with community volunteers and a local selected foreman. It is amazing what an extraordinary accomplishment ordinary people can do when their hearts and minds and strengths are dedicated to its purpose.On this side of the highway, they are working in narrow roads at a deeper construction level with incredible obstacles. When the trenching began on the first lateral street, the road material was sand and dirt. At the first intersection at the main road, the content changed to large and huge volcanic boulders. If the trencher were not being used, it is doubtful they could remove these by hand. The pipe laying continues at a good pace with the end of trenching and the final manhole for the turn to the bridge line in sight. They must somehow remove all these boulders because they cannot go into the trenches - they would cruch the piping.Community volunteers seem to be very happy about this project for the health of their families because the men, women and youth labor together in the heat and the difficulties. Those who are waiting for the next part of the project in 2010 work to bring it closer to their homes because they have the hope and vision of this reality for their future.We are now getting goodbye hugs and blessings from the chilren (4 boys and 2 girls so far) at the Casa. They are so beautiful as they leave for school--- fresh and crisp in their white shirts and blouses and dark pants and skirts. They smell so good and we smell like Vicks and are in our pajamas. What a memory we leave with them! We have enjoyed living with them these past and fast weeks and treasure the interactions with us, their Casa family, and the other guests that have passed through.We need to close and finish packing up for our taxi. God bless you as you come and go. We{ll write if we can - if not, Hasta Saturday.David and Nancy

We arrived safely home at midnight after a long but uneventful day. Everything went as hoped – an easy ride to the airport, on-time and smooth flights, magnificent daytime cloud and evening ground lights displays. We turned on the water, turned up the temp setting in the house and went to bed. Our goal this weekend has been to sleep and we are accomplishing that. Slept 19 hours on Saturday - sleep and Superbowl on Sunday. We both feel a little energy returning today so we will tackle a month’s worth of mail and look at our calendars for February.

We did manage to bring some warmth with us to raise the temperature above freezing this weekend. Hope you enjoyed that - maybe it will happen again today.

On Thursday afternoon, we visited a community called Los Jardines de Colon, a city outside the city of Colon which is ½ hour from San Salvador. The city has 800 residents, many streets, houses packed close together. At 6:00, school children and men and women returning from work were pouring into the city. This community has access to bus lines and decent roads so employment is not an impossible challenge.

We saw the lot where the leaders want to build a community center and home for workers of the center. They have ambitious plans and are eager to get the building project started. We also visited several homes to look at the style of construction. The homes were the basic cinder block style with the kitchen on the front or back porch, a corridor living room, 2 small bedrooms, two windows to the front and an open entry to the back yard.

This city also has large homes and yards that are attractive. We did not get to visit those. So it appears that there is a variety of income in this city.

Because our visit was unscheduled, we did not have the opportunity to meet with community leaders to learn more about the women and youth programs that are established and what their goals and needs are. While there is still much unknown, we have accepted the request to live and work in this city. The main project will be the construction of the community center and the “guesthouse” which will be our home. Another project will be to begin an urban organic garden to teach about nutrition and self-sufficiency for food supply.

As we visited the rural communities, we realized the isolation these required was more than we could commit to. While a city placement is far from what we had expected, our desire continues to be to serve as best as we can. Our skills and gifts will be well used within this community. Our starting time is May. Many details here must be finalized in a short time. We thank you for your support on our January journey and ask that you keep us in your prayers as we move forward.